Welcome to the second part of The Philosophy of Fear.
The Prodigal Son.
In this chapter, Harry meets one of the great fears face to face for the first time since Mag Turied.
On with the show.
Rabastan Lestrange, Marunweem village. October 31st, 12:12 AM
Smoke, fire, and ruin- those were all Rabastan Lestrange could see.
It wasn't an unfamiliar sight to him either; he had spent years in his Lord's service, sowing destruction, pain, and terror in the name of his Lord and his sacred war against the filth that permeated their world. But what was unfamiliar to him was being on the receiving end of the ruin and flame, it was a rather new horrible feeling of pain and terror coursing through him.
His Lord had bade him, his brother, and his Sister-in-law to go forth into the night to some terror and death in his name. Which was less a mission than more of what he was born to do. However, nothing in his life of study and practice of the dark arts nor his countless missions for his Lord could prepare him for what had just happened. He was attacking the Village of Marunweem with a handful of recruits yet to earn his lord's mark. He set out the horde of dark monsters of burnt flesh and charred bones, of drowning and freezing waters, of exceptional violence and gore-soaked bodies, beings of pain and loss that his family found an odd companionship in.
He watched from the darkness of the old fortress that overlooked the village from the lake. The fortress was a crumbling and decaying remnant from a time long ago when wizard-lords and witch-consorts ruled the realm during the far-flung past of Merlin. The fortress stood over a small trade hub before the time of apparition and portkey's when witches and wizards crawled on the ground in mundane ways like muggle filth of the time. Rabastan watches with a growing smirk as the idyllic little village of stone cottages begins to burn, smoke escaping from the grass-covered roofs as the miserable blood traitors begin to scream.
He watched as the first wave of Formorians slipped into the homes of the mud-blood and blood traitors- flushing them out and right into the paths of the recruits. Screams and cries of raw pain as the torturer curse was used on the smaller children, causing their weak parents to turn and try to fight and defend them. He could hear the cackling of his Sister-in-law a little ways off as she watched the first wave of the assault, but it wasn't until several cracks of apparition filled the air that he, Rodolphus, and Bellatrix joined the fray.
They had pulled lots on who were to set the wards and who got to command the forces for the ambush on the Aurors. He got to join in on the bloodshed while his brother and sister had to maintain the wards that kept the Aurors trapped. Rabastan laughed from deep in his belly as he walked down the main thoroughfare of the village, firing off Killing curses at anything crimson and the torture curse at everything else.
Their orders were simple, spread pain, loss, and terror while killing as many Aurors as they were able to. The one to kill the most was promised a reward from his Lord of power and knowledge over one of the factions of Formorians; and Rabastan was hungry for that reward.
The Aurors fell back into their normal patterns of saving the mud-bloods and blood traitors, pulling them to safety as they tried to push back the Formorians swarming them. Rabastan and his men continued their assault- burning, torturing, and killing all those they could reach.
It was a glorious sight.
"Fall back! Everyone fall back out of the village!" the large Auror with dark skin orders, his voice loud and booming with magic. Rabastan just laughs, throwing his head back as the Aurors flee before him; his dark, cruel laughter echoing through the streets and around the village.
"Cowards and weaklings, the lot of them!" he thinks to himself as he laughs as he opens his eyes to a peculiar sight above them. "Why are the stars falling?" Was his thought as the pinpricks of light in the night sky began to grow bigger and bigger, the sound of ripping and whipping winds following them.
The first of the stars landed not twenty feet away from Rabastan, striking the cottage to his left. He heard the snap of wood and crack of stone before the cottage exploded outwards, sending shrapnel and Rabastan himself flying away from the epicenter. He hits the ground hard and rolls to a stop; he feels the stars land before he hears them- the earth shakes and sunders under the barrage, and the screams of his men and Formorians alike fill the air. Rabastan tries to stand, to flee. He could even feel the wards surrounding the village fall, but as soon as he had his feet under him, he was bowled over by another star striking the earth.
He was like a leaf caught in a windstorm as the earth shook around him, every star that landed sent shockwaves that made his teeth shake and bones rattled. Rabastan could feel himself being pelted by debris and shrapnel from all sides, one striking his right arm hard enough that he was sure it was broken. Rabastan had no choice but to wrap himself in a cushioning charm as he slammed against cottage walls and skidded across the cobblestone streets.
After what felt like hours, the barrage of falling stars finally ended.
Rabastan's ears were ringing from the explosions as he tried to blink the spots from his eyes. He coughs and hacks at the thick smoke that fills his lungs and burns his eyes as Rabastan tries to push himself to his feet; or at least he tries to. At first, Rabastan thinks he is seeing a glamor, an illusion or a trick of his mind- his right arm was missing. Blood pooled from the stump in the middle of his bicep, Rabastan's head swam at the sight as his stomach heaved with disbelief. He tries to clench his hand, to feel it- to do something! But he felt…nothing…
Rabastan pushes himself onto his back, counting his blessings that he still had hold of his wand. He inspects himself and much to his fear, Rabastan finds himself a mess. Shards of wood and stone were lodged into him- in some cases through him. The most worrying were the large pieces of broken wood lodging themselves into his thigh, guts, and lower leg. He couldn't yet feel the pain, but he knew it would be only a short while before the shock would wear off and the pain would come.
"Ro- Ro-" Rabastan tries to call out for his brother as his head bobs back and forth, looking around him- at the sheer carnage he beholds. His men were dead, some impaled by silver bars twice the length of any man, some had whole sections torn from them and scattered about- he could still see the lights in some of their eyes as it slowly bled out with their lifeblood. The Formorians were dead as well, much in the same way as his men, while some were screaming like animals as black veins crawled across their bodies and reduced them to nothing but foul-smelling sludge. The village was in ruins, spiraling silver spires jutted from the earth all around him as the homes that once stood for hundreds of years burned and collapsed into rubble around him.
It was nothing less than a calamity in his eyes.
Rabastan pushes himself against a crumbling wall, leaning against it as the pain begins to bleed into him quickly. With a rasping gasp, he aimed his wand toward the stump of his arm and conjured tight binding cords a bit above the stump- a tourniquet to stem bleeding. He lets out a scream of pain as his head rolls back, he could do nothing about the debris and stratton stuck in his body for he was no healer. Rabastan nearly spits at the thought of letting that cunt Severus heal him, but he would have to if he wished to continue his service to his Lord.
"Ro-Rodolphus!" Rabastan screams of the tumbling of stone and the final screams of agony of his men. "Brother!" He yells once more, sure that his brother and Sister-in-law are already looking for him. He closes his eyes and rolls his head back once more next to the smoking head that was once a cottage. "Rodolphus," he says much more quietly before he coughs, the pain flaring in his guts from the act.
Something kicking him lightly catches Rabastan's attention. "Rodolphus?" He murmurs as he forces his eyes open, seeing the lower half of a person standing in front of him wearing dragonhide boots.
"Which one is that again? Is that the cuckold or the cuckold's brother, I can never remember which is which," a young voice says, causing Rabastans eyes to shoot open and look up to a young man wearing a silver jacket with silver eyes. His black hair shifted in the wind as he looked past Coke bottle glasses with a bored and detached expression. "Then again, I guess it doesn't matter- I just need one of you-" he answers with a bit of a smirk. "-alive that is,"
"Potter," Rabastan says in a mixture of shock and hatred.
"Oh, goody. You know my name," the boy says banefully before rolling his eyes. "Would you like a gold star or some shite?" He asks as his lips twist into a disgusted scowl.
Rabastan tries to raise his wand to curse the boy, to torture him for his impudence and dirty blood but as soon as his hand moves; the boy plants his boot into his face, breaking his nose.
"Who the fuck told you to move?" The boy growls as he pulls back his foot and grabs Rabastans's hand and twists it till it snaps at the wrist; taking his wand from him. "Now where is it?" The boy asks as Rabastan's head reels from both the blow and the pain. The boy pulls up the sleeve on his left arm before cursing. "Don't tell me that cunt brand all you knobs on the right fucking arm!?" The boy vents in frustration as he stands back up and tosses Rabastans's wand into a burning home.
"Hey! Knobhead!" The boy shouts before slapping him hard across the face. "You're marks. The one snake-face McCunt-ass calls you all with, it works both ways, right?" The boy asks, surprising Rabastan with the slap and the question.
"What are-" Rabastan asks, groggy from the blood loss, but the boy slapped him again.
"Oi! I'm asking the questions here, knobhead. Now answer me, the dark mark works both ways, yeah?" The boy asks him as he squats down in front of Rabastan. "Magic like that doesn't work just one way. It's like a leash that can be pulled at both ends, meaning if he can call you, you can call him, right?" The boy asks again but all Rabastan does is spit blood in his face.
The boy sighs deeply, wiping the blood on Rabastan's robes before standing. "Fine, I'll just have to find someone with a right arm and test the theory on them. You however-" the boy reaches into his jacket, toward his arm, and pulls a golden spear from inside it. "-I don't have a use for, and you're not leaving this village alive tonight. But don't worry, next time I see Neville, I'll tell him you died like a-"
"RABASTAN!? WHERE ARE YOU!? RABASTAN!?"
The screams of his brother cuts the boy off mid-rant as he was raised the spear pointed to his throat. Both he and the boy turn in the direction of his brother's voice. But instead of a look of fear or surprise that Rabastan thought the boy should have had on his face, instead, the boy was…smirking.
"Turns out to be my lucky day," the boy says as he drops his spear from Rabastans throat. Instead, he reaches down and grabs a fist full of his hair and begins to drag Rabastan along with him. "I guess you aren't the cuckold after all, huh? Well, no matter. You're still useful," the boy tells Rabastan as he drags the full-grown man along and he moves in the direction of his brother's voice.
"LESTRANGE!" The boy roared before stopping, dragging Rabastan to his knees and forcing him to look forward. Rabastan could see his brother and Sister-in-law at the other end of the sloping road that led to the stone bridge that led north toward Hogwarts. The boy's roar echoed across the burning and destroyed buildings, there was a fierceness in the boy's voice- and a hunger, a great unearthly hunger.
Rodolphus and Bellatrix freeze at the sight before them, the boy who their Lord wanted to kill more than anyone else holding their brother(in one way or another) by spear point. Rodolphus' eyes nearly burst from his skull at the sight as his face turns red and his face twists with rage.
"Let him go, Potter! Now!" Rodolphus screams as he levels his wand at the boy. Bellatrix looks between her husband and the boy with caution as she frowns, holding her own wand defensively. "Now Potter! And I'll give you time to run like the rest of the filth!" He demands.
Potter just scoffs at Rodolphus threat. "Better idea. You want this piece of shit alive, yeah?" The boy asks as he digs the top of his golden spear into the soft flesh of Rabastan's clavicle, making him wince. "I'll let him go, as soon as you call him," the boy demands as he glares back at Rodolphus and Bellatrix.
"What?" Even as Rabastan thinks it, he hears Rodolphus say it, even Bellatrix looks baffled at the boy's request.
"I didn't stutter, Lestrange!" Potter yells back, loud and impatient. "Use your mark and call Voldemort here! And I'll let this one-" Potter says as he jerks back his head. "-you, and your bat shit insane wife, go. That's the deal! No other offers, take it or none of you leave this village alive," the boy threatens in a cold and unforgiving tone.
"You think you could stand up to our Lord as he is now?" Bellatrix says with a mad cackle. "You have more of a death wish than your mud-blood mother, you filthy-"
"I fucked your daughter!" The boy snaps at Bellatrix with rage, causing his Sister-in-law to gape at the lack of dignity the boy had. "So, tell me Bella-" the snark in his voice was unmistakable as was the grin on the boy's face. "-what do you think she likes more? You're pure-blood idiocy or this half-breed dick?" The scream of pure rage that escapes Bellatrix is only matched by the wild uncontrollable force of her magic that shattered stone and cracked the earth around her.
"That's what I thought," the boy says before turning back to Rodolphus. "What is it gonna be Lestrange!? Your brother alive or all of you dead?" He asks with finality in his tone.
"You wouldn't dare, half-" Rodolphus begins to say, his tone full of confidence. Sure of himself and that the boy wouldn't kill, he was one of the Ministry's puppets and Dumbledore's biggest sycophant. But those were the last words that Rabastan heard his brother say, as the pain from where the boy pushed the spear into his body was far to great to focus on anything else.
Rabastan could feel the cold steel punch through his bones, slice his heart in twine, and puncture one of his lungs. He felt his own hot blood hit the back of his throat before it began to pour from his mouth. He feels the boy grab a hold of the handle and jerk it backward like he was working a leaver, slicing through his stomach and his ribs. He looks down just in time to watch his organs fall to the earth before he falls forward.
And the last thing Rabastan Lestrange feels is someone stepping on his head to walk over him to try and kill his brother.
Harry Potter, Marunweem Village.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Rodolphus Lestrange's strangled cries echo hauntingly over the burning village as he watches his only brother die right before his eyes. But Harry didn't care as he stepped in the back of the head of the over Lestrange brother as he advanced forward; flicking his wrist to call forth his wand to his hand.
"Should have taken the deal, Lestrange. Now none of you leave here alive," Harry says maliciously as he walks forward, the Hunt reflected in his eyes. One way or another, Harry was going to avenge the Longbottoms for Neville, for their friends and family they left behind, and for the family that could have taken him in.
Lestrange's eyes snap back to Harry, madness and bloody rage dancing in his eyes. The sight causes Harry to smirk at him, pushing the older man over the edge as he raises his wand at Harry with the words of the killing curse on his lips. He was quick, of this Harry could see- his wand moved with steady confidence and practice ease, sadly for him; Harry was faster.
The earth before Harry folded and relented to his will as it upheaved in front of him, blocking the sickly green curse. With a flick of his wand, he vanishes the wall at the two Lestranges before conjuring a multitude of floating shields around him that lazily bob up and down. From the two cracks that he hears, he already knows his prey is on the move- looking to encircle him before attacking. Almost as it was clockwork, Rodolphus and Bellatrix appear with sharp cracks around Harry. Bellatrix at his six while her cuckold of a husband appears at his three, Harry almost snorts at their predictability before banishing two shields- one for each, at them.
Bellatrix flicks her wand, sending the shield skyward before her hand lashes out- half the incarnation for the torture curse leaping from her tongue.
Rodolphus chose to vanish the shield sailing to take off his head before, like his wife, his own hand whips about in a lightening like arc with the first syllables of the killing curse off his tongue.
Harry, however, just smiles as he twists his wand. "Silentio haec regio!" He thought and felt his magic swell rapidly like a dirigible, capturing both the Lestranges inside the bubble. As both Bellatrix and Rodolphus try and roar out their respective spells, not a sound escapes their throats; and so, no spell leaped from their wands.
"Can't believe they forget something so basic," Harry thinks to himself with a smile. How many times did Hermione beat into his head the basics of magic? He could practically hear her now. "Sight, Intent, and willpower, Harry. These are the three main things to cast any spell, even silently but some spells NEED to be said; the ones that take the most intent are normally said," she had told him back in his first year, and what spells need more intent then the torture and killing curse?
Harry laughs soundlessly as he turns to Bellatrix, banishing half his shields at her surprised face. But her shock doesn't last long as she swishes her wand to vanish the steel shields as Harry chains a cleaving curse at the end of his swipe and sends it at her husband. As Rodolphus dives out of the way, Harry turns his full attention to Bellatrix. With a chain of lateral swishes and bilateral flicks, Harry twists the earth to his will- bear traps that looked to be made for Fluffy tries to snap shut around Bellatrix's legs. But the woman is far too quick and vanishes before the traps can snap shut.
Harry turns back to Rodolphus as he conjures more interlocking hexagonal plates, three are immediately consumed as curses strike them. Harry quickly interlocks four of them before casting the Scalpel Charm on them, engraving them with ancient Greek runes and pumping them full of magic. As his arms come down from that, he quickly conjures more shields behind him- but even then he feels three of Bellatrix's curses splash across his back as they punch through his shields. Harry clicks his tongue in annoyance, he was gonna have to repair his jacket after those spells hit it. But Bellatrix will be wondering if he was dead for the moment, which bought him the few seconds he needed to deal with Rodolphus
Harry thrust his wand forward, banishing the shields at his male opponent. Rodolphus tries to vanish them like before but panics as he sees that they are unaffected by his spell. Harry twists his wand, transfigurating one of the shields into a chain, being careful not to deform the runes of it. Rodolphus tries to banish the shields and makes them miss him but completely misses the chain until it snakes around his throat. His eyes go wide as he looks at Harry's smiling face, and with a combination of his own demi-god strength and a summoning charm, Harry yanks Rodolphus off his feet to swing him in a semi-circle.
As Harry finishes the swing, he lets go of the chain to banish the shields at his back at the same time as Rodolphus swings into their trajectory. Harry notices Bellatrix is nowhere to be seen as the shields ram into her husband at high speeds- slamming him into a stone wall of a half-destroyed cottage. Harry immediately points his wand over his shoulder before casting Voldemort's conjuration spell behind him, having little doubt the three Queens of Serpents melted everything behind him and hopefully killed Bellatrix. He bends his knees and shoots forward like an arrow from a bow, the Golden Rose of Mortality poised to take Rodolphus' worthless life.
Before the downed Death Eater could fully get to his feet, Harry was on him with his spear aiming for his right eye to take his life. Harry watches as Rodolphus' eyes widen comically moments before Harry kills him- just to be saved when Bellatrix summons him away. Harry's spear catches his thigh, slicing deep into in. The Hunter could smell the freshly spilled blood and felt the Hunt drive him forward to take the man's life. Harry turned in the direction of where Rodolphus was summoned to, raising his wand and casting a shield charm as Bellatrix launched her counterattack at him- but it seemed that Harry didn't need to do a thing.
Silently, Dora apperates in front of him, her hand raised to catch the spell. The vivid blue spell strikes her hand and vanishes as the pink and gold regalia of the Areia springs to life across her. Bracers, pauldrons, and a breastplate of shining pink and trimmed with gold now adorn Dora as she smiles at her Aunt before raising a single finger and wagging it back and forth as if to say "naughty naughty, Aunt Bellatrix," Dora turns her head slightly to look at Harry as he steps forward, a glare of anger in her eyes.
"She's probably pissed I used the Hunt on her," Harry thinks to himself with an internal sigh. "We'll deal with it later, first the cuckold and bat shit Bella," he thinks before turning fully to the two mad dogs of Voldemort- but he freezes as the wind carries a new scent to his nose over the smell of burning flesh and wood.
Dora watches Harry prepare for his next attack, so she plants her feet and prepares to support him but pauses as Harry moves his spear to block her. She turns to him confused, only to see him no longer looking at Bellatrix and Rodolphus- but above them up top of the hill the road led up to.
For standing on top of a burning tower house was a woman in a white sundress- looking directly at Harry.
Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts had moved the chair that normally sat behind his desk to next to the burning hearth in his office. Dressed in dark purple pajamas with an orange tree growing from the hem of his PJ's, he sat in the chair with his legs crossed and eyes distant as he ran the fingers of his good hand through his long white beard; lost in thought.
"Albus, did you hear me?" The voice of Tomoe Makoshi comes from the burning hearth, causing the older man to jump a bit.
"My apologies, my dear. I was lost in thought for a moment, will you repeat the last thing you said?" Albus answers, his voice tired and weak- even to himself.
"I said we've already routed the snake's attempts to stretch his reach beyond his means. The French Ministry, unlike your English one, has no qualms about stripping its ruling body of rights temporarily to search the people sitting in the big chairs," Tomoe repeats, no doubt with a grin on her face, seeing that she took such pride in her self-imposed quest.
"How many?" Albus asks, turning to the flames with a raised brow. He wasn't surprised that Tom was trying to spread his influence beyond the white walls of England, France was the closest and ripe for his type of evil.
"Not many, just two," Tomoe answers with a hum, no doubt enjoying some sweets or pastry since she vehemently refuses to indulge in anything alcoholic. "They were both imprisoned, forced to take Veritaserum for interrogation before being executed for treason," she expressed emotionlessly to Albus.
Albus frowns but nods his head, while he would never agree with stripping any person or people of their rights as intelligent beings; but in war, you did a great many things you would rather not do. He sighs as he rubs his eyes before turning back to the green flames burning away in the hearth. Things were escalating and escalating quickly, he had to get ahead of the curve if he wished to end this war; whether he was alive at the end or not wasn't something he cared much for.
"Albus!" Tomoe calls again from the flames as Dumbledore's head snaps back to the flames.
"My apologies again," Albus says with a sigh. "It is rather late here, as I'm sure you're aware," he tells her.
"Albus, I do believe your growing senile in your old age. I do believe it's getting close to retirement for you," Makoshi says in a teasing tone, something she had done since they first met many years ago. Albus would normally laugh it off and reply with a joke about rest when he was dead.
"I do believe that you may be right, my dear," he tells her for the first time, leaning back in his chair as his good hand moves to cover the blackened one. Tomoe doesn't say anything for a long moment, undoubtedly realizing what he had meant by his words.
"Try not to go on that next great adventure without seeing me for tea one last time, Dumbledore-Sama," she says in a cold and empty voice, no doubt blocking her emotions to deal with them in private.
"I wouldn't dream of it, my dear lady Makoshi," Albus answers back with a warm voice and warmer smile she couldn't see. "But I do have a query not pertaining to your investigations on the continent, if you don't mind, Tomoe?" He asks just as warmly as he crosses one leg over the over.
"Oh? Finally, getting up the courage to ask me on a date? My, you have me blushing like a schoolgirl, Albus," Makoshi teases once more, fully knowing his preferences but never failing to make him chuckle.
"Come now, Tomoe. We both know I am far out of your league," he chides her with humor in his voice. "No, my query is about something else, namely Harry," he says as his hand drifts back to his beard.
"Ah, I see," Tomoe murmurs from the flame.
"Why did you not tell me he was with you?" Albus asks, his voice free from any accusation as he speaks.
"It wasn't like I was keeping it from you, old friend. If you would have mentioned Harry, I would have told you. It just never came up," Tomoe answers honestly from the flames and Albus believes her. "He wrote to me, months ago, asking for a favor and offering to join the ICE if I were to do it for him- and I accepted," she informs Albus nonchalantly.
"And what did he ask for in return?" Albus inquired, curious about what Harry wanted from Tomoe.
She takes a moment, almost hesitating in her response. "He wanted to learn how to fight those on our level," she finally admits in a somber tone causing Dumbledore to sigh deeply. "I know you dislike it, Albus- but you said it yourself, Harry is the only one who can defeat him," she tells him softly, though her tone was cold when she said it.
They sit in silence for a few moments, each with their own thoughts and one with his own regrets. He never wanted to see children on the battlefield, it was better to have them in the classrooms- learning, laughing, and causing mischief in their youth so they could look back on their formative years with a smile.
She had no regrets with how she had taught the boy, he had asked her to show him what he wanted to know and she had. She saw a lot of herself in Harry, he'd taken a mission upon himself and would see it through with steely resolve no matter what bitter end waited for him.
"How strong?" Albus asks, his voice distant and full of remorse as he speaks, unaware that hundreds of miles away from where he sat, his old friend subconsciously traces a scar given to her by the very boy they spoke of.
"Strong," Tomoe answers after a moment, her hand not leaving her side where the scar rested. "Lady Scáthach was right, he is driven to become more powerful because that is what his life has demanded from him. His resolve is like steel, Albus, and he has honed it into a masterful blade," she admits breathlessly. "He won't run, he won't hide- if you try and force him behind your robes for his own protection, then you should know he is more liable to cut you down as well. He won't stop, Albus. Not until Tom Riddle dies screaming and the Formorians all follow the snake's fate, and anything in between Harry and his prey will become prey themselves," she warns Albus, ignorant of the pained look in her friend's eyes. "Be careful, Albus. The boy is no longer the child you knew, he has set himself on the path of blood and only one thing travels that path- as you well know," she tells Albus, her voice low and haunting to him as she spoke.
For Albus Dumbledore did indeed know what lies at the end of the path- after all, he had watched the man he loved walk it once before.
Marunweem Village.
Harry Potter takes a step forward, his eyes never leaving the woman on the burning tower as he flicks his wand and cancels the wide-range silencing charm he had cast.
"Okay, looks like it's you two's lucky night," Harry calls out to Bellatrix and Rodolphus as he turns his short spear back into its torc form so he can slip it into his pockets. "Bellatrix, take yourself and your cuckold of a husband and piss off sadly I won't be killing either of you tonight," he orders them, his eyes flickering to them as he spoke but never lingering on them for too long.
"You think you can just kill my brother and walk away, Potter!? This is a blood-debt! I'm going to make you bleed! I'm going to make you scream! I'm going to kill-" Rodolphus rants as he stands, hobbling on his one good leg as he continues to scream at Harry. It was Bellatrix who, shockingly, had the presence of mind to turn and look towards what Harry was seeing behind them before smacking her husband on the back of his head.
"Woman! What is your prob-" Rodolphus begins to say as he turns to his wife, only to find her looking up and at something else- someone else. An evil cackle escapes as he turns back to look at Harry and Tonks, a cruel smile growing on his lips as he tries to stand straight. "Now you're in for it, boy. You're outmanned and outgunned now, our Lord has sent us-" he begins to monologue as the monster in human form takes a single step and slowly floats down from the tower to stand in front of Rodolphus and Bellatrix.
"I was not sent by Lord Indech's vassal, Rodolphus Lestrange. I came of my own volition," she says in a soft monotone, not even turning to look at the man behind her. "Leave, now. You will only be in the way," she warns them once before stepping away from them and walking down the sloped hill. It was obvious that this was not the answer that Rodolphus wanted to hear as his face contorted in rage.
"Listen here, you freak bitch! That little shit killed my brother and I am not leaving here until-" he rants, making to step forward but stumbles because of his wound. But as soon as he insulted the living fear, the eyes that lined her body in ink begin to glow and smoke an eldritch green color as they all point to look at Rodolphus- as he begins to choke on his own fear and falls to his knees.
"Do not speak to me in that manner again, mortal, or else I will drown you in your own fear," she says in the same monotone voice, her eyes never looking away from Harry as she spoke. "Bellatrix Lestrange, take this fool back to Conrad's tower. I will return as soon as I have dealt with the boy, now leave," she tells the other woman, and unlike her husband, Bellatrix listens as she grabs her husband and apperates away.
"Harry, who the fuck is that?" Dora whispers at his side as she has her wand leveled at the figure.
"Her name is Cathlenn," Harry tells her, his eyes narrowing as he looks around them. "You wouldn't happen to have any experience with Occlumency?" He asks with a slight turn of his head, but still not taking his eyes off Cathlenn.
"Yeah, a bit. We're taught it when we join the Aurors in case we get captured or if someone tries to use the Imperius Curse on us," Dora quickly explained as she began to shift into stance.
"Good, when the eyes on her body begin to open she'll attack your mind. Forget about trying to hide any secrets from her, she is practically a walking spy network, try to block off your fears or else she'll use them against you," Harry explains quickly as he redoubles his grip on his wand.
"Are you done explaining my abilities to Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter?" Cathlenn says with a blank face as she tilts her head.
"Not really, could go on for a few more minutes if I was being honest," Harry says with a smirk as he waves his wand about, its movement catching Dora's eyes. "But I've got to say, out of all the Formorians I could have run into first- I'm glad you're the one that showed up," he admits as he animatedly talks with his wand waving about.
"Oh? A rather bold claim to make for a half-god like yourself, most wouldn't want to relive their greatest fears on the battlefield," Cathlenn states with a raised brow as she watches Harry walk forward toward her. "But I did not come to visit war upon you, Harry Potter. Just to ask and know," she tells him, the ink eyes on her body shifting and switching places every second.
"Not all that shocking considering what you are, Ceaseless Watcher," Harry says as he lets his wand arm fall as Dora's eyes suddenly widen in understanding. "What do you want to know?" He asks, tilting his head back a bit.
"How did you get onto the isles without me noticing?" Cathlenn asks the eyes across her body begin to point at Harry one by one. "Even if you were with the Six-eyes I still would have seen you through the eyes of the people around you, yet I saw and saw through nothing," she tells him, the first hints of real emotions bleeding into her tone as she spoke- sounding like frustration to Dora.
"Oh? I guess it did work," Harry mutters with a sly smirk. "I wasn't sure if it would work, seeing you were created differently than the gods, creatures of fear and all that," he states with a shrug but with a smug smile on his lips as Cathlenn eyes- all of them, narrow at Harry in anger.
"How did you do it?" Cathlenn asks once more, the frustration more evident in her tone as she glares at Harry.
But all the Heir to the Hunt did was tap the side of his nose. "Sorry, trade secret," he tells the Ceaseless Watch with a wide smile.
"Then I'll just have to rip it from you," Cathlenn threatens as the eyes over her body begin to light up and smoke once more.
Harry readies his wand as his eyes narrow at the monster in front of him. "You can try, but I doubt you'll get that far! NOW!" Harry screams as lightning arches from the tip of his wand and goes screaming toward Cathlenn. It was a distraction, even Cathlenn knew that just as she knew of Kingsley Shacklebolt hiding among the rumble all but invisible to the naked eye. But as the Great Fear raises her hands to someone forth her watches, the mortals do something she wasn't expecting.
"Revelio!" The voices of both Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks shout, before both gasps as the vail that hid Cathlenn's deadliest weapons falls. Much to her annoyance Harry Potter looked neither disturbed or fearful as his eyes landed upon what was shown in fact, to her eyes; the boy looked excited. From Cathlenn's back rose six optic-nerves-like tendrils, each almost forty feet in length and tipped with a large diamond-shaped blade. Large hooked suckers could be seen running down the length of the tendrils and across the flat of the blade with each resembling a single eye.
Cathlenn's eye twitched in annoyance as the boy had somehow figured out how she hid her deadliest weapons. But to her, it didn't matter, her watchers and eyes heeded her call and came crawling from the dark and unseen places. The beings of sight and watching and knowing and knowledge that threaten to destroy all who look upon them. From broken machinery with lenses always watching, to single great eyes that took in and trapped all within their gaze, to even the unknowable horrors hidden just behind you; they came by the hundreds. The Great and Terrible knowledge takes in the horror of the two Aurors as they turn and see and wishing they hadn't.
She watches as the one with the foreign blessing begins to fight back with a blade and sharpened shields, hacking and slashing at the uncountable horde in some fool's hope of cutting them all down.
She sees the dark-skinned Auror that had won the respect of not just one, but three gods, chain spells and curses together with gouts of charmed fire in hopes to reduce her eyes to cinders.
But the boy she observed, watching his growing smile in the face of horrors beyond his knowledge- and doesn't flinch. Instead, he raises his wand high above his head, his eyes glowing with the silver light of the moon and speaks an incantation she had no knowledge of.
"Expecto Patronum," the living legacy of Tethra says with a wide mad grin- before Cathlenn is blinded.
Cathlenn screams at the sudden onslaught of blinding silver light, her skin burning as it touches her. She could feel the love, the feeling of family, the warmth of friendship, the host of those who would stand together in the encroaching darkness, and most of all, she could feel the hope. Cathlenn opens her eyes and sees the boy standing, tall and defiant, proud and unafraid of the dark. Behind him stood a stag, the sacred animal of his divine mother, glowing harshly in silver moonlight and standing as tall and proud as the boy did.
"Clear them out," Harry orders his faithful guardian as his intent is clear in his voice, the stag rears up and slams its hooves down onto the earth- releasing another blast of silver light. The Formorians summoned by Cathlenn cry and hiss in pain as they begin to flee from the light, chasing them away from Harry, Kingsley, and Dora. The two Aurors looked at one another in surprise before they both lifted their wands and as one they called forth their own guardians. "Expecto Patronum!" A lynx and chameleon join the stag in repealing the darkness and fear from the Village as Cathlenn looks on in shock.
"Lord Indech was right," Cathlenn growls in anger as the two Aurors regroup with Harry to back him up, their own patronus' by their sides. "You are far too dangerous to let live," she says with a sneer. "Now, die," the Great Fear says coldly as her tendrils lash out at everything around her.
The three mortals scatter at Cathlenn's charge, Harry jumping backward as the other two teleports away. Harry's hand slips into his pocket and with one practiced movement, the Gaé Bolg was once more in his hand. Cathlenn ignores the other two as she aims to kill the Heir to the Hunt as swiftly as possible, her tendrils lashing out all around her as she tries to overwhelm him. But while the tendrils were fast as cracking whips, Harry was able to keep one step ahead of them as he danced, ducked, dodged, dashed, and dived out of their destructive path. He weaved in and out of the crashing appendages, unable to do anything but that.
Dora reappeared on the outside of the onslaught, pausing in awe at the sheer destruction she witnessed as burning trees and stone walls fell as easily as paper maccha mockups of the same things. She plants her feet and draws on the blessing of her great-grandmother as she begins the cast. Mighty chains burst from the ground and surged forth on her mental command to try to ensnare the flailing appendages. She reinforced the chains with more and more magic, shifting their composition to denser and denser metals as soon as they failed and snapped.
"HARRY!" Dora screams as she continues to wrestle with the Ceaseless Watches weapons. "HURRY UP AND GAÉ BOLG THIS BITCH!" she screams as she struggles to keep up.
"IT'S A BIT MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT, DORA! THE BIG ONES HIDE THEIR HEARTS, I'LL NEED TO-" Harry screams back his answer, but is unable to complete it as he dodges through the destruction.
Kingsley can be seen through the mass of thrashing tentacles, on the hills overlooking the village. He chains together charm after charm to slow down or stop them if he could and it was working- kinda. As soon as he was able to stop one completely, another would swing around to sever it from the main body before it regenerated with frightening speed and continue on as if he had done nothing. It was like watching an animal chewing off its own leg to escape from a trap. He curses mentally, now fully aware what he needs to do, he vanishes in a crack before appearing next to Tonks.
"Tonks!" Kingsley snaps, causing his understudy to look at him for a brief moment before turning back to the fight. "Stop!" He says as he grabs her wand arm to stop it from moving.
"What the hell is your problem, Kingsley!? That thing! Is trying to kill Harry!" She screams at him as she tries to pull her arm free.
"Trying to stop them one at a time is foolhardy, we need to stop them all at once or not at all!" He tells Dora, trying to keep his calm in the middle of a pitched battle like Ogma had taught him. "I have a plan but it hinges on you, so stop burning yourself out and listen!" He says, his voice raising slightly at her.
Nymphadora turns to him with fire in her smoking pink eyes. "Then spit it out already," she snaps at him through clenched teeth.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to hit you," Kingsley tells her over the roar of the Great Fear. "Rather hard in fact," he informs her, only to watch Nymphadora smile sharply at him.
Harry continues to dodge in between the thrashing limbs around him, gritting his teeth to stay just one step ahead of the destruction he dances in. He couldn't find an opportunity to level his wand or fight back with his spear, constantly one step away from death as he danced with it. He tries to move forward and into the center of the onslaught, but the closer he gets the faster they seem to move. He had nearly been nicked several times and with no healer close by he didn't know if that could stop the infection from a Great Fears claws.
Harry is caught off guard as there was a lull in the attack, almost as the eye of a great storm had passed over him; and as he turns he sees why. Cathlenn was on him, reaching out with her inked eyes across her arm wreathed in eldritch smoke. His eyes widen at the sight as he tries to lash out with his spear, but smaller tendrils burst from her back and begin to ensnare him as Cathlenn hand meets his face.
"GIVE ME YOUR SECRETS!" The Great Fear commands as Harry feels the hauntingly familiar feeling of nine-inch nails driving into his mind.
-Through fire and smoke, cherished and scarring memories, snow and ash did Cathlenn falls. Digging deeper and deeper into the boy's mind, searching for how he avoided her sight, pass the shadows of the past and a great arch of bone; she lands in the ruins of a home. Burnt down to the foundations with only a cupboard left standing, it sat in the middle of dark woods covered in snow. Confused, the great eye swipes across the mental landscape to find the boy, and finds him she does; standing just before her. One empty sleeve of his silver jacket dangles at his side, the mental image that the boy had of himself looked to have been mauled by some great beast. But the boy had no defensive wounds, merely whole chunks of himself removed. His left arm, his right eye, his organs, and large sections of his legs gnawed down to the bone. But still, the boy stood- glaring at her with a single amber eye for a resolve that could sunder a mountain.-
"Bombarda Maxima!" Kingsley cries out after teleporting a safe distance from Nymphadora, he can feel his spell connect as his fellow Auror is consumed by fire and smoke. "I really hope that worked and I didn't just kill her," he thinks to himself as the smoke begins to clear.
-"What have you done!?" The Great Eye screeches in the mind of Harry, she had long grown numb to the horrors of mortals; but this? This was something no sane being would do, and no divine would not find a blasphemy; to do this to one's own soul... "Just how much of yourself have you fed to the Hunt willing!?" She asks in utter bewilderment.-
"Enough-," the shade of the boy says as it gives the great eye a grin that lacks all reason and sanity.
"Seni! Auget! Gravitas!" Nymphadora roars as she sweeps her downward as six orbs of collapsing purple magic that recreated the natural effect of heavenly bodies come crashing down on the tendrils of Cathlenn; pinning them in their fullest to the earth.
-The cupboard in the boy's mind slams open and from the depths of the darkness twin black eyes look back at the Great Eye.-
Cathlenn rails back at the sight, just as soon as she does, the spear the boy was holding erupts into the cessation of all propagation. As she watches the boy feed another piece of himself to the Hunt in a horrifying display, a phantom of her past overlays onto the boy. A fear of her own, something she thought she buried so deep that she would never feel it again- The King of Briars looks back at her.
"What's wrong? Do you fear the end of your sight, Cathlenn?" The dark whisper of the Formorian that all others of their kin feared as he held his own spear to her throat.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Cathlenn, The Ceaseless Watches screams in fear as the boy rips himself from the tendrils that he was ensnared by.
"-to deal with the likes of you!" He roars, finishing his statement from his mind as he swings his spear in an upwards arch. Cathlenn threw her arms in front of him to defend herself, but before the Gaé Bolg it meant little. The blade of the spear carves through her chest, nearly cutting her in two, and takes with it her left arm.
Harry follows the momentum of his swing, spinning with it, and lands a backheel kick right to the stomach of the Great Fear with all the force and strength he can muster. Cathlenn folds over his kick as Harry swears he hits her spine before she is launched backward with such force it rips her body from her tendrils.
Cathlenn flies back before hitting the ground and rolling, spilling the dark sludge of fear and brine as she goes, leaving a trail of it behind her. She finally stops at the bottom of the sloping hill on her back, rolls back over, and pushes herself to her knees in a daze. She closes her eyes and focuses on healing herself but to her surprise and horror- she couldn't. Her eyes, all of them, fly open as she tries to for the regeneration of her lost arms and weapons, but nothing comes. From her wounds crawled the black veins of the terminus, creeping and crawling across her body stopping her from healing; but that wasn't the worst of it.
Oh no, it was far, far worse.
For every eye that the veins came across, they infected and one by one she watched as the eyes across her body began to close.
"But- but how!?" She thinks in a panic. "The boy's ability! It has to be! Since it can not outright kill me, it's hobbling me to make the kill easier!" she thinks before her head whips back to the half-god that did this to her. He was walking slowly toward her, his Amber Eyes boring into her- without mercy and with a hunger that threatened to devour everything. She had to flee, she had to escape- to find a new body to host herself in.
"There it is," Harry says softly during his slow march toward the downed Cathlenn, he had finally found her heart. It was kept in the great eye that floated far above the battlefield, out of danger and puppeting the body in front of him. He looks up and into the great eye and watches it flitch and shiver in fear- for it knows Harry has located its heart. Harry readies himself, aiming his spear high and overhead.
"Hush now, hide, all you little ones,
Rush now, into the darkness,
Where your singing and laughter will die,"
Harry pauses at the lullaby being sung, turning to look at Cathlenn confused. "What the hell?" He speaks softly to himself.
"Harry! What the hell are you waiting for!? She's right there! Kill her!" Dora yells as she runs over to him, pointing and waving frantically at Cathlenn.
"Sleepless nights follow the Nowhere King,
When the Hunt is high, the greatest lark is nigh,"
Harry could feel something gathering around the downed Great Fear, it felt oddly familiar- something he had felt before. He watches as dark and polluted blood, foul smelling like a kill left to rot in the sun, he watches as branches of plants he had seen before bloom, wither, and then die in a breath.
"Quite now, crawl through the in-between,
Silent now, your screams are like songs that calls to, his fearsome Hatred that swallows the sky,"
Harry relaxes but keeps his eyes trained on Cathlenn as the Hunt gnashes its teeth and growls low and dangerously in his mind.
"Harry! Kill her!" Kingsley screams from across the battlefield, but like Dora- Harry ignores him.
"You will bring joy to the Nowhere King,"
Harry's eyes widen when he finally places the feeling before turning back to Dora. "Dora! Run! Now!" Harry screams before turning to dash away himself.
"When the light of the Hunt leaves his eyes,"
The polluted and congealed blood explodes outward, a roar ripping a throat raw shakes the village down to the bedrock as Harry grabs Dora and flings himself as hard and as fast as he can across the village.
And from the pool of black blood, a bleached white stag's head emerges as Goll, the Great Fear of the Hunt- enters the battle.
Chapter done!
And holy hell that was a fun fight to write as the Formorians show some of their true capabilities. But now with Goll joining the fight, how do you think the Heir will match him?
Find out next week!